Innovative Product Solution for Semiconductor Customers: WACKER Develops New Specialty Silane for High-Performance Microchips

Modern semiconductor chips contain billions of transistors squeezed into the tightest of spaces. Increasing miniaturization has brought with it a rise in the number of transistors and boosted semiconductor performance, but also presents several technical challenges. One problem, for example, is the interactions between the interconnects and the transistors. As a consequence of the growing number of circuits and ever-higher switching frequencies, electromagnetic fields are limiting the performance of the latest generation of microchips.

A new product from WACKER now offers a practical solution. The product, a specialty silane consisting of silicon, carbon and chlorine, is an important layer-forming precursor in the production process of semiconductors. It reacts with the surface of the heated hyperpure silicon wafer to create an insulating layer with a low dielectric constant. This reduces electromagnetic interference on the charges moving at high frequency in the interconnects.

“Thanks to intensive research work, our chemists have succeeded in developing a silane that improves the performance of microchips significantly,” says Thomas Koini, head of WACKER’s SILICONES division. “The product facilitates the development of computer chips with highly integrated and highly complex structures. These types of chips are increasingly required for applications that have to handle intensive computational tasks, such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and cloud computing.”